Battery Park City (photo: @Ingfbruno via WikiCommons)

The state budget approved last month gave the Battery Park City Authority the ability to raise an additional $1 billion in funding for resiliency projects that will protect the southern tip of Manhattan from the worsening effects of the climate crisis.

The Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) is a state entity originally created in 1968 to develop and improve the neighborhoods on the west side of Lower Manhattan. It is responsible for maintaining and upgrading the physical landscape of the 92 acres under its purview, home to nearly 17,000 residents, which also involves major infrastructure plans that will be beneficial to adjacent areas while advancing city and state resiliency and sustainability goals.

As a state authority, the BPCA can issue bonds to raise funds for infrastructure projects, and this year’s state budget increased its bonding capacity to $1.5 billion, a sizable increase from the prior $500 million. The ability to raise additional funds will help the BPCA carry out the second phase of major resiliency projects planned for Battery Park City. Though the neighborhood was spared the worst effects of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, there was nonetheless extensive damage worth tens of millions of dollars to the historic Pier A Harbor House in the south, the BPC Ball Fields, and Asphalt Green Community Center in the north.

“This bonding authority is a critical next step in advancing our resiliency efforts to help protect Battery Park City as well as do our part to help protect Lower Manhattan,” said B.J. Jones, president and CEO of BPCA. “Given the climate crisis and the unfortunate fact that coastal storms are getting more severe and more frequent, we have to do more, given our duty to maintain the neighborhood.”

The Authority has already begun construction on the South Battery Park City Resiliency Project (SBPCR), which will build an “integrated coastal flood risk management system from the Museum of Jewish Heritage, through Wagner Park, across Pier A Plaza, and along the northern border of the Historic Battery.” The project is meant to limit the risk of coastal flooding, protect open spaces and aboveground and belowground infrastructure. The $221 million undertaking is meant to be completed in early 2025.

Like other significant coastal resiliency projects, aspects of that project have seen some controversy. The project will demolish and rebuild Wagner Park, a waterfront space built three decades ago, in order to raise it by ten feet and install flood protections. Local residents have opposed that plan and even unsuccessfully sued to prevent it, while proposing an alternate design that would keep the park open with minimal disruption and build a flood protection wall behind the park.

The BPCA’s next big venture is the North/West Battery Park City Resiliency Project (NWBPCR), which is still in the initial design phase and will extend similar resiliency protections to the remaining parts of Battery Park City. The project can now be adequately funded with the BPCA’s ability to issue more bonds, and is intended to be completed by 2027. As the design process continues, the authority will have a clearer projection of its costs, Jones said, but “make no mistake, an incredibly significant investment will be necessary to the tune of at least about a billion dollars.”

"This funding is absolutely critical in New York's efforts to build a resilient and sustainable city for generations to come, as it will ensure that Lower Manhattan is protected and fortified against a changing climate and more-frequently occurring extreme weather events," said Gary LaBarbera, President of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York, in a statement. The Trades Council was instrumental in lobbying for state approval of the additional bonding authority, a contribution that Jones also acknowledged.

"The Building Trades remains committed to supporting this project and other green infrastructure initiatives throughout the city, as they not only improve the lives of all New Yorkers, but create thousands of good paying, family sustaining careers in the unionized construction industry,” LaBarbera said.

BPCA’s plans are part of the larger multibillion-dollar Lower Manhattan Coastal Resiliency (LMCR) Project, which involves various initiatives by the city, state, and federal governments to protect Lower Manhattan from rising sea levels and devastating storm surges like the ones the city experienced during Hurricane Sandy.

While BPCA coordinates closely with the city, its ability to finance its own projects also eases pressure on the city budget. “We obviously have to work with them to make sure that what we're doing aligns with what they're doing elsewhere around Lower Manhattan because we're a link in that much larger chain of coastal protection,” Jones said, “but yeah, because of our ability to issue bonds, we can finance this capital work and that does help us as well as the city in getting these projects underway.”

Once these major projects are completed over the next several years, Jones said the BPCA can look to future climate initiatives such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the neighborhood, reducing waste and conserving water. “I kind of describe our climate adaptation efforts as like playing offense and defense,” he said. “And so with these coastal flood protection measures, we're playing defense, but we also have to think long term in terms of sustainability, which is playing offense.”